1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for installing an air-conditioning duct to a supply outlet of an air-conditioning unit mounted on vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, air-conditioning in vehicles are performed by using an air-conditioning duct to supply air-conditioning air discharged from an air-conditioning unit for vehicles to a predetermined position inside a vehicle and blow off the air.
Ordinary air-conditioning units are provided with two supply outlets for air-conditioning air, and each of them are installed with a duct for supplying the air-conditioning air to a different position.
Recently, in addition, some air-conditioning units are provided with a plurality of supply outlets to discharge air-conditioning air with different temperatures.
Wide variety of methods for installing an air-conditioning duct to an air-conditioning unit have been used, and for example, JP. A. 6-106956 discloses a method for fitting one air-conditioning duct and other air-conditioning duct with a pawl part in advance to be integrally fixed, and then, connecting the integrated air-conditioning duct to the supply outlet.
In addition, JP. A. 2004-98727, A discloses a method using an air-conditioning case for sliding and fixing one end of an air-conditioning duct to an air-conditioning unit when installing a unit, such as an instrument panel, to which the air-conditioning duct is connected on a vehicle.
FIG. 5 shows a conventional example with respect to a method for installing an air-conditioning duct to a supply outlet according to the present invention.
According to this example, two air-conditioning ducts 101 and 102 are incorporated in advance to form a fixed unit.
A supply outlet 202 of the air-conditioning unit is formed in a state where a part (the front surface of the orbit for installing the duct indicated by an arrow) that is notched (a notched part K.) Subsequently, an air-conditioning duct unit 100 is moved closer to the supply outlet from the direction in which the notched part K is formed, and outer peripheral faces of the air-conditioning duct 100 is contacted with inner periphery faces of the supply outlets 201 and 202 for connection.
In the connecting method shown in FIG. 5, a supply outlet boundary edge 200A of the air-conditioning unit and a boundary edge 100A of the air-conditioning duct are butt-jointed in almost line-contacted state.
Therefore, so-called an air leakage phenomenon, where air-conditioning air discharged from one supply outlet 201 flows into a duct 102, or air-conditioning air discharged from other supply outlet 202 flows into a duct 101, can easily occurs.
In order to prevent the air leakage phenomenon, a joining section of the supply outlet boundary edge 200A of the air-conditioning unit and the boundary edge 100A of the air-conditioning duct must be provided with a seal material.
In order to install the seal material to the joining section of the supply outlet boundary edge 200A of the air-conditioning unit and the boundary edge 100A of the air-conditioning duct, the seal material must be installed to the supply outlet boundary edge 200A of the air-conditioning unit or the boundary edge 100A of the air-conditioning duct before performing a connecting operation.
However, even if the seal material is installed on the supply outlet boundary edge 200A of the air-conditioning unit or the boundary edge 100A of the air-conditioning duct, due to an extremely small contact area of the supply outlet boundary edge 200A of the air-conditioning unit and the boundary edge 100A of the air-conditioning duct, a connecting state is unstable depending on assembly conditions.
Furthermore, the seal material may be peeled off from the boundary edge when assembling, and enough sealing property may not be ensured.
Therefore, maintaining the assembled state so as to prevent the air leakage phenomenon is difficult.
The present invention was developed to solve the above-mentioned problems.
That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a structure for installing an air-conditioning duct to an air-conditioning unit so as to prevent an air leakage phenomenon.